FA-Day Minus Eight

March 4th, 201311:00 am

Brian Bassett , TheJetsBlog.com

Here’s some Monday notes about free agency and the draft to get you going this week …

It Starts at Home — Everyone is expecting the Jets to not be able to do much in free agency and that seems very likely. Dustin Keller looks poised to walk out the door without so much as an offer from the Jets. Mike DeVito was a solid contributor to the team, but his time was nigh once they drafted Quinton Coples. Shonn Greene hasn’t been able to produce enough early in the season in his three years as a starter. And the Jets seem to be bracing for the loss of both Matt Slauson (who we’re told doesn’t expect to be back) and Brandon Moore. Cimini knows Moore well so if anyone has insight into Moore’s status with the team, it would be him. Now back from the Combine and just over a week away from free agency, look to see if the Jets don’t work to restructure some more players before next Tuesday. Mangold is a possibility as are Pouha, Holmes and a few others. Should a player like Holmes be unwilling to restructure, my guess is that the Jets will take the worst of it in 2013 so that they can have much more flexibility as they enter the 2014 cap year.

Ziggy Ansah at the 2013 NFL Combine

An Anash to the Pass Rush? — I’m not sure if you saw this over the weekend, but it looks as if Ziggy Ansah … the guy who jumped out of the gym in Indy didn’t even prepare for the Combine, that he’s never ran a 40 yard dash before in his life. While most of the Combine’s attendees are residents at speed camps in Southern California, Arizona, or Florida during the winter lead up to the Combine, Ansah stayed at his school to finish schoolwork to work to graduate this spring. This one’s for you, Ziggy …

Crossing Jordan — Dion Jordan might not have had the greatest college production at Oregon in terms of sacks, but his size is going to be irresistible to many 3-4 teams. At 6-6 and with 33 inch arms and 10 inch hands, his size might allow him to be an excellent edge setter and stack-and-shedder. Jordan needs to add some more bulk and with 3.8% body fat (3rd lowest at the Combine) he might be primed to do just that. He’s got the flexibility to be a versatile player on the outside, but look to see if the Jets don’t drill in on his ability to rush the passer to determine if he’d be a fit with the Jets. One mitigating factor for a team like the Jets who might be concerned about his pass rush skills … even if he needs refinement there, he might benefit from working with Wilkerson and Coples as they will assuredly free him up because of their ability to dominate on the interior.

Fly Patterson — Cordarelle Patterson is a name that has been linked with the Jets through mock drafts over the past few weeks. Heck, even Mike Tannenbaum had Patterson as the Jets guy at the ninth pick — though it sure felt like an appeasement/damage control pick when you read his reasoning. Even so, it sounds as if insiders aren’t sure how smart Patterson is. One scout told the Trenton Times that Patterson is “… explosive. He’s dynamic. He runs consistent 4.4s, I’m just not sure how smart he is. You’re going to have to keep it simple for him. But the kid is really dynamic.” We’re getting into the silly season, but it will be interesting to see if Keenan Allen doesn’t start to scoot past Patterson on draft boards.

Cascade Effect — The Niners have been mentioned as a team that might have interest in Revis, but what if the Niners are planning to use some of their early picks to address their defensive backfield? That’s just what Tony Pauline writes on DraftInsider.com. The cascade effect of this is one of two things: either they’d rather use early draft picks on draftable talent, or maybe since they were using one of those picks on the backfield anyway …

Ertz-while — There’s a lot of flux right now with what the Jets tight end position will look like come September. Will Cumberland be the starter? Will they find a player in the draft? Will they sign a veteran free agent to a modest deal? Will they snag a waived player at cutdowns? If the Jets were to draft a Tight End, it’s probably a given that they wouldn’t go for a player in the mold of Dustin Keller since they are about to let the five year veteran hit free agency without so much as a serious overture. One player that I highly doubt the Jets would seriously consider is Stanford’s Zach Ertz. One scout said Ertz “can’t block at all” and that he had just “average speed” for the position. The Jets will be looking more for a player that will be able to play in-line, and who will be effective in the middle of the field against linebackers and safeties … not the split-out style of receiver, which Cumberland seems poised to take on this season.

Cribbs Notes — Did you hear the story about Josh Cribbs? Apparently he told a radio station that his agents are already negotiating with other teams and that “numbers” are already in play for what he might get from other teams. Good for Cribbs, right? Not exactly. His agents can’t talk officially talk with other clubs until March 9th, so Cribbs and his agents might be in hot water over the matter. As a matter of practicality we know that this behavior happens all the time in the league and that the Combine is an excellent chance for agents to talk with teams quietly about possible free agent fits. But the parties involved shouldn’t be stupid enough to publicly say that this is going on. Normally they are complicit in their boilerplate answers, as his agents were in response to Cribbs’ public statements.